MACKWORTH PRAED, William (1694-1752), of Trevethoe, nr. St. Ives, Cornw.

In 1714 John Praed, M.P. St. Ives 1708-13, finding himself in financial difficulties, came to an agreement with Sir Humphrey Mackworth, M.P., a successful lawyer, under which Mackworth was to pay Praed’s debts, on condition that Praed, who was unmarried, arranged a match between his great-niece, Bridget Penrose, the heiress-at-law to the Praed estates, and Mackworth’s son, William. When the scheme fell through, owing to the objection of the Penrose family, Praed arranged for young Mackworth to marry the daughter of a Bristol merchant, half of whose dowry went to pay off Praed’s debts, in return for which Praed on the marriage day executed an indenture adopting William Mackworth as his son and heir, subject to his assuming the name of Praed. On Praed’s death in 1717 both Mackworth Praed and the Penroses laid claim to the estates. After prolonged legal proceedings an agreement was reached in 1733, under which Mackworth Praed secured the Trevethoe estate, carrying an interest at St. Ives.1Parochial Hist. of Cornw, iii. 101; G. C. Boase, Collectanea Cornubiensia, 756-8; Add. 36178, ff. 285-95. Returned next year for St. Ives as a Tory, he voted against the Spanish convention in 1739, was absent from the division on the place bill in 1740, and was one of the Tories who voted against the motion for Walpole’s removal in 1741. He did not stand again, dying before May 1752.